The Charge

"Somebody's got to show these copycats what being a Titan's all
about."

Opening Statement

By the time the third season of Teen Titans started, the show was
officially a hit. Taking the beloved DC Comics heroes and reinventing them in an
outrageous anime style paid off for the show's creators, with a cast of likable
characters, huge action and in-your-face comedy.

With 13 new episodes to produce, the creators brought aboard a new villain,
looked into the heroes' heads and back stories, and introduced a second set of
Titans, all set to the tune of Puffy Ami Yumi's supernaturally peppy theme
song.

Facts of the Case

Meet the Teen Titans, young superheroes operating out of their giant tower
headquarters, saving the world from evil when necessary:

• Robin (Scott Menville, Where in the World is Carmen
Sandiego?), martial artist and master strategist, with crimefighting
training by that guy who dresses like a bat. • Starfire (Hynden
Walch), an angelic space alien who can fly, has super strength, and can fire
powerful energy blasts—not to mention her relentless positive attitude. • Beast Boy (Greg Cipes, Club Dread), the jokester of the
group, who can transform into any kind of animal he thinks of, from a hamster to
a tyrannosaurus rex. • Cyborg (Khary Peyton), a half-human,
half-machine powerhouse, whose advanced tech provides all sorts of weapons and
gadgets. • Raven (Tara Strong, Ben 10), the cloaked,
gloomy member of the team, who commands dark, supernatural forces that look to
me like just telekinesis.

This year, the Titans infiltrate a school for villains run by the persuasive
Brother Blood (John Di Maggio Futurama), who takes an interest in Cyborg,
hoping to claim some of the hero's super-tech for himself. Along the way, they
deal with a British invasion, an animalistic transformation or two, a visit to
Starfire's home world, alien pets, magic books that spawn fire-breathing
dragons, ghostly visits from the past, and a fantastic voyage. It all comes to a
head with the formation of Titans East, a new group of new heroes, for the final
battle against Brother Blood.

The Evidence

The success of Teen Titans all has to do with balance. When the show
is firing on all cylinders and entertaining wildly, it's because it's found the
right balance between the extreme, stylized action and the shrieking comedy
hysterics. Whenever the creators attempt an all-comedy episode or an overly
serious episode, it never quite works. But with just the right elements in just
the right amounts, suddenly Teen Titans defies expectations and becomes
quite the amusing superhero cartoon.

The creators decided to make Cyborg the focus for this year's ongoing story
arc. It's a move that pays off nicely, with a chance to explore the character
with a little more depth than we'd previously seen. The season premiere,
"Deception," has Cyborg going undercover in Brother Blood's Hive
Academy. To do so, he uses hologram technology to look like a regular guy,
without all his mechanical parts. This gives him a taste of what a normal life
might have been like for him. Later, when Brother Blood steals Cyborg's
blueprints and uses the tech for evil, Cyborg feels violated, and spends the
rest of the season driven to take down Blood, no matter the cost. These are some
pretty intense emotions the character goes through, and although they never
explode into full-blown dramatics, the creators should still be applauded for
putting him through the wringer like this.

I'm guessing Robin is probably the toughest character on this show to write
for. He's the leader, who always knows what to do in a crisis, and he's the one
the others rely on to always do the right thing. The writers play with his
unmoving sense of morality in the episode "X," when a mysterious
stranger steals the Red X gear from the first season. Robin blames himself, and
gets even more confused when it appears this new Red X might not be such a bad
guy. Later, in "Haunted," Robin is tormented by visions of the Titans'
former nemesis, Slade (Ron Perlman, Hellboy). This one showcases his "never
give up" attitude, and it also shows how he needs his friends at his side,
so he doesn't push himself too hard.

Raven benefits from a few nice character moments in the episode
"Spellbound," in which she longs to meet someone who understands her.
"I'm not creepy, just different," she says. When she does meet that
special somebody, she's heartbroken when he turns out not to be what he appears.
That's when her friends are there for her. A little less thoughtful is the
"Bunny Raven" episode, in which a rival magician transforms her and
the other Titans into cute, cuddly animals. This one's supposed to be about
Raven outsmarting her rival, but instead it devolves into comedy antics and a
screwball musical number.

Similarly, Starfire has some nice character moments when the Titans visit
her home world, just in time for a confrontation with her evil sister Blackfire.
In "Can I Keep Him?" Starfire adopts an alien pet with Beast Boy's
help, which ends up being a mistake, as the critter grows to gigantic size and
draws the attention of some destructive villains. Again, this one leans too
heavily on the comedy side, with too much time spent on her babying the
creature. Beast Boy also has a couple of moments to shine, in "Crash,"
where he shrinks to amoeba size to save Cyborg's life, and in "The Beast
Within," where he loses control of his powers and gets truly monstrous.
Mostly, though, he's the one the writers turn to most often for comedy high
jinks, and he starts to get annoying when watching several episodes in a
row.

The big event this season is the founding of a new group of heroes, the
Titans East, with Aqualad (Wil "Wesley Crusher" Wheaton), Speedy (Mike
Irwin, She's Too Young), Bumblebee
(T'Keyah Crystal Keymah, Cosby), and super-fast twins Mas y Menos (both
voiced by Freddie Rodriguez, Grindhouse). These new Titans spend
time working both with and against the regular Titans, depending on the plot,
but by the end, they prove themselves worthy of the Titans name. Of course,
there's no explanation as to who's funding these massive Titan headquarters, one
on each coast now, just as there's no worries for these heroes about stuff like
school, parents, etc., but there's just enough character work here so that these
unknowns don't ruin the show.

Another plus for this DVD is the flat-out spectacular visual transfer, where
the colors are so bright and vivid that there are "Wow!" moments in
every episode. The 2.0 sound is decent, booming out of the speakers at the
appropriately explosive action scenes. The featurette has the show's writers and
producers discussing the various villains and their approaches to bringing the
bad guys to life on TV. The only other extras are some trailers.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

Like I said above, the humor of the series mostly doesn't work for me. For
jokey moments, the characters suddenly switch from their normal looks to
exaggerated cartoony forms, often reacting with extreme close-ups right to the
camera, with bulging eyes, huge gaping mouths, and occasional bits of drool
and/or bulging forehead veins. It's a little less humorous and a little more
obnoxious. During the most of the comedic scenes, I found myself wishing they
could get on with the story.

Closing Statement

Teen Titans isn't a perfect series, but it is compulsively watchable.
Sure, some of attempts at comedy are cringe-worthy, but when taken as a whole,
there's a lot of fun to be had here.

The Verdict

Not guilty, but try to tone down on the joke attempts next time, Titans.